Skinned dog alive Facebook story a hoax

Published 5:43 pm Friday, November 25, 2016

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi sheriff and police captain say officers investigated a Facebook message claiming the poster had skinned a trespassing dog and found what the sheriff calls a 17-year-old “being dumb.”

Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing says neighborhood dogs are all alive and the teen said he’d copied the photo from the internet.

Rushing tells The Daily Leader (http://bit.ly/2guT8Zv ) that Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks representatives told him the photo shows a skinned raccoon.

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Brookhaven Police Capt. Clint Earls says police are monitoring activity by the teen and a Facebook friend of his who posted a similar photo and message.

Earls says there’s no evidence of a crime.

The newspaper investigated after hearing from a man in the United Kingdom who said he found the first Facebook message “absolutely appalling.”